The invention relates generally to mail processing equipment, and more specifically, to systems and methods for processing sheets, statements and/or inserts prior to mailing.
Financial institutions including credit card companies mail literally millions of documents within the United States each week. For example, credit card customers can expect to receive a monthly statement summarizing their charges for the prior month, or longer. With these monthly statements, the customers may receive other information or printed inserts, including advertisements, offers for additional services, account information, checks for use by the customer, replacement cards, and the like. The inserts may or may not be specifically directed to a particular customer, or class, of customers. The credit card companies, or other parties that prepare the mailings for them, are constantly on the lookout for improvements in efficiency, speed, and cost savings. Even incremental improvements in processing speed or efficiency can produce large benefits due to the huge number of mailings. Thus, improvements to mail processing systems or methods are desired.